I planned an Amazing Race theme party for my son's birthday party, who turned 11. I bought regular invitations with sport's balls on the front from the store and filled them out, but I inserted a letter inside the invite explaining the party to the parents. I wanted to let the parents know that their child would be running around the neighborhood, which is small, enclosed and very safe) doing several tasks just like in the Amazing Race on TV. I listed several examples of what the guests would be doing during the game. The letter also served as an RSVP giving the child permission by the parents in writing that they understood the party, and I had it in writing that it was okay for their child to be unsupervised in completing the tasks. I also asked for parent volunteers to help me to make sure the tasks were done correctly.

Here is what we did: 1. We drew bandana's to place the guests in teams of two. Each team wore a different color of bandana.

2. I have 6 stations set up around the neighborhood of events that they need to complete. The events are as follows:

a. Go to playground - each team mumber must make 10 free throws before getting a new task;

b. Go to the birthday boy's home - each team member must choose a jar and eat the contents of the jar with a baby spoon. (they are large jars of baby food without the labels on them. You can use any yucky item here like sardines or something, but my son happens to like sardines.)

c. Go to each tower (4) and collect a ribbon(like you use to wrap gifts using 4 different colors. I hung them on a door of a person I knew in each tower or in the hallway on the main floor) from the tower and return it to the birthday boy's house to get your next task (we live in a small community with several apartment towers)

d. Go to the Food Court - the team members must work together to put a 100 piece puzzle together.

E. Go to the soccer field - the team member's must work a math problem, then complete that number of jumping jacks in unison if the answer is wrong, rework math problem and redo jumping jacks until correct answer is achieved.

F. Go to the soccer field - each team member must kick a soccer ball around the perimeter of the soccer field two times. The first team to get back to the birthday boy's house first with their card completely marked off, then they win.

At the beginning of the race, each team has a scorecard with the numbers 1-6 on it. I stationed 5 other parent volunteers as well as myself at the stations (one at each station) to supervise the tasks. Once the tasks were completed by the team, the volunteer marked off their card and gave them their next clue (an envelope with their team number on it). I started each team at a different station so they would have no idea who was leading the race. I organized the tasks so that each team had a different order in which they did the tasks making sure no team finished with a task at the birthday boy's house. The prize was a t-shirt for each member of the winning team with Japanese Kanji on it with the name of the city we live in. This is a great party. It is very entertaining and great for older kids. You may choose to have an adult tag along with each team if you do not want the teams out on their own. It all depends on the neighborhood you live in.